Burning Within the Eternal Flame
by sinful-at-twilight
Summary: Blysse was accidentally transformed by a nomad. Embry is the Quileute werewolf who imprints upon her. When the Volturi learn of her strange affinity with fire and her bond with a Quileute werewolf, war once again threatens the Cullens and their werewolf friends. Neither Blysse nor Embry has any intention of giving up what they have found with each other.


Chapter One

Fires

My name is Blysse Harper.

I moved to Forks from Louisiana.

My entire body felt like it was on fire. My insides, my blood was burning within me. There was nothing I could do to scream this agony to the world. Even my voice was trapped inside where the fire burned within me.

All I wanted was for this internal fire to go out. I feared that I'd go crazy if the burning didn't stop soon. The only thing I could hold on to was my name. I knew that it would keep me sane through the fire consuming me from the inside out.

My name is Blysse Harper.

I burned and fought off insanity. Through the burning I could hear people talking around me but that didn't matter. Those voices didn't mean anything while the fire blazed. I heard names being spoken and speculations being made about what could have happened to me.

Why didn't anyone put the fire out? How could they just stand there and let me burn like this? Wasn't there anything they could do to help me?

My name is Blysse Harper.

"My name is Carlisle." A voice managed to break through the fire. "You're going through a transformation. A vampire has bitten and left you for dead. Obviously your creator didn't intend for this to happen."

I wanted to tell this Carlisle guy that he was definitely off his meds. Too bad for me that I had my teeth clenched so tightly that there was no way I could say a word.

"Your transformation is almost complete." Carlisle said in his calm, compassionate tone. "When the venom has spread through your whole body you'll be a newborn vampire. My family and I are going to help you with this difficult transition."

The internal fire flared. As the flash of heat raged through me I prayed it would not get any worse than this. I was sorely disappointed. The fire engulfed my heart, the burning intensified. My heart beat one final time and the flame extinguished.

"It's over now." Carlisle told me. "You should be able to move now."

Slowly I opened my eyes.

The world around me was an array of colors and detail. My sense of sight was out of this world.

Dust motes floating in the sunlight were much more beautiful than I ever thought possible. The wood grain of the ceiling was an art form with this new eyesight. Colors were richer than I'd ever thought possible.

My sense of smell was insane. I could smell things I'd never imagined had scents. There were the normal scents of vanilla, lavender, caramel, pine, and countless other delicious smells overwhelmed me. Then there were other things mixed in with those. I could smell the telltale smell of a dog, summer sunlight, cotton, denim, and so many other things that I had no names for.

The burning that had coursed through my body for an indeterminable amount of time had moved to my throat. It was on fire. I know I would never have been able deal with it if I hadn't endured that other flame.

Sitting up slowly wasn't even an option. One moment I was lying down and the next I was up.

All around me there were amazingly beautiful men and women standing around me. They were all pale-skinned with golden eyes and dark circles around those strange eyes. They were all smiling winningly at me.

Ranging behind them were a group of russet skin, shirtless boys and one scantly clad girl. They were all extremely handsome in the usual, human way. I knew they were Quileutes.

My eyes locked on one particularly handsome face. I became lost in those dark eyes. They were the only ones that didn't hold a hint of disgust when he gazed at me. His mouth was set in a solemn line but I knew that he had a lovely smile. He had such a perfect mouth that I was sure that he would be heart stopping when he smiled. I couldn't help but wonder what was causing this handsome young man to frown and look so worried.

"Everything is alright now." A blond man said, his hands held up in front of him. "I'm Carlisle Cullen."

My eyes moved from the nameless young man and to Carlisle's preternaturally beautiful face. I stared at him, watching him step forward slowly. I remained silent. I didn't know if I could speak around the fire that was torturing my throat.

"This is my family." Carlisle said. He motioned to them as he named them off. "Esme Cullen, my wife. Rosalie and Emmett. Alice and Jasper. Edward and Bella and their daughter Renemsee."

My eyes flicked to each of their lovely faces and registered them in my memory.

"These are the Quileute werewolves." Carlisle told me, motioning to the russet skinned boys and girl. "Their alpha is Jacob Black and they are friends of ours. Jacob is imprinted on Renesmee."

I knew what imprinting meant when it came to ducks but I wasn't sure what it meant for these werewolves. I was pretty sure it meant the same thing but in a different way.

Someone, the Quileute boy I'd noticed before, shuffled his feet and drew me from my reverie.

"Do you know what happened to you?" Carlisle asked me hopefully.

I worked to unclench my jaw. "My name is Blysse Harper." I said in a soft voice. My voice was different, much more musical than I'd ever thought possible. "I was camping on a beach near the Quileute reservation with my brother, his fiancée, and their children. I was on the beach when the stranger attacked. I heard them scream and ran to help if I could."

My voice caught in my flaming throat. I couldn't go on.

Esme moved to my side, her perfect hand grasping mine gently. The look of compassion in her golden eyes engulfed me and I knew that if I could have shed tears that I would have.

"Did you not think to run away, run to safety?" Esme asked me.

I shook my head. "All I knew was that I had to protect them. I'd always protected my brother." I told her.

She took me into her arms, held on to me as if I were her child. My head fit perfectly into her shoulder. I didn't try to pull away.

Until I forced myself to remember, the memory had been a vague thing. When I spoke of it everything came back to me. The horrible memory of that night was extremely fresh in my mind now.

I let her hold on to me and prayed that it would go away.

When I opened my mouth to speak again it didn't quiver or betray me. It was still that strange musical sound that I'd been emitting since I'd first spoken upon my wakening.

"They were all dead and there was nothing I could do." I told them. "I attacked the man leaning over my brother's bleeding corpse. He was hard as stone and cold as ice and I knew that my punching wasn't doing anything to him. He attacked me then and bit into my neck."

"He must have been a nomad." Edward said in a flat tone. "This nomad had no intention of turning you, Blysse."

"Guess he was just too full from slaughtering my family." I said in an equally flat tone.

Emmett chuckled. "She sure catches on quick."

Pulling away from Esme was surprisingly easy now that I knew why I was still alive. It made me sick inside to think that I was alive because the nomad drank from me last. Apparently he hadn't left enough room for dessert.

Edward smirked and laughed darkly. "And she has a dark sense of humor."

My eyes shot to his face. "Excuse me?"

Bella wrapped her arms around one of her husband's arms. "Edward can hear thoughts." Her tone was proud and her golden eyes were full of love when she looked up into his handsome face. "Alice can see the future, Jasper feels and controls emotions, and Renesmee can show her memories with a touch of her hand and no shield can keep her out."

Edward pulled his wife closer to him, wrapping his arms around her. "And Bella is a powerful shield that can deflect any mental talent."

I stared at them. These people, these vampires, were extraordinary. Not only did they have the preternatural beauty, speed, strength, enhanced vision and smell, and immortality but they also had these extras. What had they done to deserve such an amazing array of talents?

"It just happens." Edward said. "None of us is really sure how but we are glad that it has."

"Speak for yourself." The dark-skinned female grumbled.

Again my eyes were drawn to the russet skinned group standing amid the Cullens. I didn't linger on the bitter female. My eyes were for the young man I'd noticed before.

Looking at him, I felt myself being pulled towards him. Again I was moving before I realized it. One moment I was sitting and the next I was standing before him.

He didn't flinch away from me like the rest of them did. When I raised my hand, he leaned forward until his cheek was resting against my palm.

The moment his feverish flesh touched my ice cold one, I became engulfed in a new fire.

One moment we were standing in the sunlit room surrounded by the Cullens and Quileutes. The next we were standing alone in darkness with a flickering flame as our only light. I was no longer touching him now that we were alone. He stood on one side of the dying fire and I was on the other.

For an unexplainable reason the lack of my hand against his flesh was causing me an echo of pain. I didn't know why I felt this vague feeling of emotional pain. I didn't even care. All I knew was that I had to make it stop.

I watched as the flame sputtered in a nonexistent wind. The longer I stayed away from this strange young man the smaller the fire became. Soon there would be no flame to light this darkness at all.

My movements were no longer preternaturally quick in this strange place. I moved like a human again. With the flame so close to its last flicker I wasn't very pleased by this. I needed to move quickly!

I reached out to him, my palm inches from his cheek. I let it hover there above his feverish skin. "What's your name?"

"Embry," he said in a husky, sexy voice.

I closed that distance between my hand and his cheek. The moment our hot and cold flesh touched the fire extinguished.

In the darkness we spoke in unison. "Blysse?" One voice questioned, while the other called "Embry?"

A new fire blazed to life, chasing away every shred of darkness. Embry's cheek was still resting against my icy palm. Through our locked eyes and this simple touch there was a bond between us. I'd never known anything like this could exist. In this new light cast by this stronger fire I knew that this was where we both belonged.

As the heat of the fire surrounded us, the strange place our initial physical contact had thrust us into disappeared.

The fire was gone. The heat was gone. The place where only the two of us had resided was gone.

Our bond, the fire that raced between us when we merely looked at one another, remained. The place might be gone and that fire might be gone, but we were bound now and forever by a fire much stronger than the one the venom had burned through me.

"Embry?" I breathed. "What just happened?"

He gazed deeply into my eyes and he wasn't disgusted by what he saw in them. "You saw my imprinting on you. That's how it felt for me when I first looked at you when I found you on the beach."

"Is that normal?" I asked.

Renesmee shook her head. "I never saw what it was like for Jake when he imprinted on me. I mean I was only a baby when it happened but still."

"That kind of thing has never happened." Jake affirmed. "The imprinted never know exactly what it feels like for the imprinter when it happens."

I wondered if it was always the same sort of imagery when the imprinting happened. Or was fire just something that would be a part of my immortality?

_Would that really be so terrible?_ Embry wondered.

My hand flinched away from his cheek, hovering a hands breath from his hot flesh.

The venom had caused fire to burn through my veins. My throat was on fire with bloodlust. Embry's skin was feverishly hot. His imprinting imagery upon me had been that of fire dying because of our distance and reigniting upon our touch.

Was it really such a terrible thing that fire, depicted in different ways, would be a part of my life for as long as I lived?

Looking into Embry's dark eyes I didn't mind the idea of spending eternity burning with him.

I rested my hand upon his cheek once more. He smiled down at me. If my heart were beating anymore it would have stopped.

_I knew you'd have a beautiful smile, _I thought with a mental laugh.

_Well then I'll try to do it more if it'll make you happy, _he thought back. _Hey do you think Edward can hear this?_

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Edward nod minutely for my benefit alone.

Slowly I traced a line down his cheek with my icy fingertips and let myself become lost in those dark eyes. Staring into his handsome face with that beautiful smile curving his mouth up, I knew that I would welcome the next fire that Embry brought into my immortal life.


End file.
